Selective adsorption of AuCl4− on chemically modified D301 resin with containing N/S functional polymer

•Two novel adsorbents, D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA, were successfully obtained.•The adsorption ability and recognition selectivity of these two adsorbents for AuCl4− were studied.•D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA could be reused with adsorption capacity loss of 1.9%.

In this study, Poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (PGMA) was grafted onto the surface of the weak basic D301 resin. Subsequently, two new adsorbents, D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA, were obtained successfully through ringopening reactions between the epoxide rings of PGMA and the amine of ethylenediamine and thiourea. The adsorption and recognition properties of these two adsorbents for AuCl4− were studied through batch method. The experimental results showed that D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA possess strong adsorption ability and excellent recognition selectivity for AuCl4−, and pH has a great influence on the adsorption capacity in the studied pH range. The adsorption of D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA towards AuCl4− is a typical monomolecular layer adsorption. The adsorption capacity of D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA for AuCl4− reaches 274.7 and 300.4 mg g−1 at 298 K and pH of 2, respectively. D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA can be used to adsorb AuCl4− electively from gold-bearing chloride solution. In addition, the desorption of AuCl4− from adsorbent is effective using mixture of acetone and 1 mol L−1 of hydrochloric acid as eluent. Consecutive adsorption-desorption experiments showed that D301-g-EDAPGMA and D301-g-THIOPGMA could be reused with 1.9% of adsorption capacity loss.